by Steve Mackenzie

Vultee Vengeance MJ-A A27-54. Image: Peter Malone

The 'Rats of Tobruk' film was filmed in 1943/44 , well known actors Grant Taylor, 'Chips' Rafferty and Peter Finch who played the main characters, were all serving in the Australian army and played their parts on leave. A set representing the town of Tobruk was constructed in a field near Camden. Underground firing posts and dugouts were reconstructed in the studio of Commonwealth Film Laboratories. The Cronulla sandhills stood in for the African desert, and battle scenes were shot there at nighttime. Watson's Bay was used to shoot scenes of Australian soldiers embarking by boat (Text adapted from public Wikipedia page).

New Guinea sequences (from a different part of the film) were shot Lamington plateau Qld. Captured German and Italian weapons were used during filming. In 1943 the 3rd Army Tank Battalion was equipped with a squadron of Australian Cruiser Mk.1 (AC1) Sentinel tanks which had been modified to resemble German tanks. Scenes were shot in March 1944 using 21 Sqn RAAF Vengeances (painted in Luftwaffe colours) as standings for Ju-87 Stukas.

For those wishing to model one of these airframes, DEKLS from W.A has come to our rescue in releasing a sheet DL72052 for this scheme in 1/72 scale which should be suitable for any of the FROG (and offspring)/Revell and MPM 1/72 releases of Mk.I/II Vengeances. (Note their is an error in the caption on their sheet in referring to the AZ kit which is of course 1/48 scale, not 1/72). DEKLS have modelled a 2nd airframe MJ-B A27-55 rather than A27-54 in our heading image.

Thanks to Roger Lambert for assistance in putting this spread together (Steve).

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